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Captain Obvious Runs for President, by Hotels.com

He’s taken a literal 50-state tour of the USA (including stops at hotels, of course) with a number of puns and baby-kissing gags thrown in, all in a bid for the presidency.

This isn’t just a surface campaign though; it’s been rolled out across multiple channels, with a dedicated website full of content, including video, GIFs and even memorabilia.

How Trump are you? By 888

The controversial candidate has been digitally transformed by 888 into the form of an interactive quiz.

Users are being invited to test themselves against the Donald Trump-O-Meter to identify how much they have in common with the Republican candidate – from their chosen shade of tan to their favourite hat.

It’s a nice example of shareable social media content, though I am not sure how many people will be proudly admitting they’re 100% Trump on their Facebook page.

I’m 0%, if you were wondering…

No Choice, by Doritos

Crisp giant Doritos is throwing its hat into the political ring with a campaign that targets students, encouraging them to take part in this year’s election and make their vote count.

How? In partnership with Rock the Vote it has created a limited edition of crap crisps that boast no flavour or crunch and are packaged up in lack-lustre fashion, made for the 62% of young Americans who didn’t vote in 2012.

Taglines rolled out with the campaign include ‘if you’re not registered to vote, you get no choice’ and ‘the boldest choice is making a choice’.

Across the pond, UK-based burger chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen is poking fun at Donald Trump with its new ad campaign, Vote Rump.

The restaurant’s latest burger has sparked a series of outdoor ads that compare the candidate to a hamburger, with taglines such as ‘Vote Rump – it’s a bit of an arse’ and ‘Vote Rump – it’s really rich and incredibly cheesy’.

Simple marketing at its finest.

In summary…

The key takeaway from these various campaigns?

Brands can insert themselves into relevant political culture, without taking themselves too seriously.

Rather than trying to ignore one of the most talked about subjects of the year, these brands have managed to embrace the conversation without taking sides.

We’re in the land of startups this week, spending a day in the life of Ann-Marie Rossiter, Head of Marketing at events marketplace HeadBox. As usual, we’ll be finding out what it takes to succeed in this role, from skills and tools to the daily routine. If you’d like to appear in this feature, get […]